Looking for legends: Harbaugh hopes to host Mays and Ali

If you happen to know two of the greatest sports figures of the 20th century, send them Jim Harbaugh’s way: The 49ers coach would like to have Willie Mays and Muhammad Ali attend one of his team’s games.

After about 18 minutes of football talk during Harbaugh’s press conference today, the conversation turned from mighty men (his 49ers) to Mighty Men: Ali and Mays.

Harbaugh said an invitation has been extended to Mays, one of his boyhood heroes, to attend a 49ers game.

“We’ve been working on it,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t want anything from him. I just want to go up to him and shake his hand and tell him that me and my dad think he’s the greatest baseball player in the history of the game. That’s all I really want to do. Some day I will, hopefully.”

The same goes for Ali, who Harbaugh said is viewed in his family “as the greatest sports competitor this world has ever known.”

So how did Harbaugh’s press conference meander from Xs and Os in the aftermath of Sunday night’s win over the Lions to “The Say Hey Kid” and “The Louisville Lip”?

The detour began when Harbaugh was asked about Ali stories his dad shared with him last week. In turn, Harbaugh excitedly relayed the stories to the 49ers on Tuesday.

As it turns out, Jack Harbaugh recently realized a dream when he met Ali, who attended a Ravens practice while Jack was visiting his oldest son, John, Baltimore’s coach. Jack sat with Ali and his wife and Lonnie Ali shared a few inspirational stories from her husband’s life.

One story: Due to segregation, Ali couldn’t stay at a hotel which doubled as his training facility before his heavyweight title fight against Sonny Liston in Miami in 1964. Instead of being driven to the hotel, he ran the five miles each day.

“Every step of that run he was telling himself someone is going to pay for this,” Harbaugh said. “And it was going to be Sonny Liston.”

At this point, Harbaugh will have to hope Ali and Mays accept invitations, but there was a celebrity sighting on the 49ers sideline Sunday night. Actors Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, in the Bay Area to film a movie, were guests of the team and joined them in the postgame locker room (Wilson asked the 49ers if he could attend).

Harbaugh said he cherishes opportunities to expose himself and his team to accomplished figures from outside the NFL. In July, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the 49ers.

“It’s just been our culture,” Harbaugh said. “We like being around those kind of guys, whether it’s a Navy Seal whose name we can’t mention, or Colonel Jim Minick of the United States Marine Corps. Or General Dempsey … We like being around those extraordinary kind of guys. But they’re also normal guys. So it’s great.”